Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-09-03
BITS OF SCIENCE.

A NEW theory of the final destruction
of the earth is that the polar ice is PEN
etrating the interior of the globe like q
wedge, and that as soon as it reaches
the furnace there will be an explosion
that will split the world into pieces too
small for truck-patches.
ONE who claims to have tried it says
rubber may be fastened to iron by
means of paint composed of powdered
shellac stepped in about ten times its
weight of concentrated ammonia. It
should be allowed to stand three or four
weeks before being used.
IT is often desirable to make excava-
tions for pipes in very cold weather,
when the earth is frozen. Quicklime
has been tried for thawing the surface
with success. The ground to be dug is
covered with alternate layers of lime
and snow. The Stacking lime heats the
soil so effectually that after ten or
fifteen hours it may be removed with
ease.
BROWNING" oranges grown in the
West Indies and Mexico, so that they
shall pass muster as real Florida fruit,
is the device of an enterprising Yankee.
The process consists of putting the
fruit into large sieve and passing it
over hot fire until the oranges con-
tanned therein are sufficiently scorched,
technically Drowned" to give them
the true Florida tinge which is peculiar
to that delicious orange. The
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north and west.
M. LIGNER, an Austrian meteorolo-
gist, claims to have ascertained, after
careful investigation, that the moon has
an influence on a magnetiZed needle,
varying with its phases and declina-
tons. The phenomenon is said to be
more prominently noticeable when the
moon is near the earth, and to be very
marked when she is passing from the
full to her first or second quarter. The
disturbances are found to be at their
maximum when the moon is in the
plane of the equator, and greater during
the southern that it is during the
northern declination.
GALLON has pointed out some very
curious facts concerning the children
of professional men, He found, from a
study of the heredity of the members
of some of the largest scientific socie-
ties of London, that the legal profess
sion presented the most eminent men
and the fewest idiots. The medical
profession came next, and lastly cler-
gymen, who produced the smallest
number of eminent men and the largest
number of idiots and feeble-minded.
The lawyers gave origin to six times as
many eminent men as the clergy. The
clergy gave origin to six times as many
idiots and feeble-minded as the law
yers.
PROF. TRowBRIDGE's plan of subma-
rine telephony in which speech was to
be transmitted between vessels at sea
without the aid Of any connecting wire
has been abandoned as impracticable,
as the system upon which Mr.. Edison
has been experimenting in Florida is
more promising of good results. In
this system the telephone signals, by
long and short explosive sounds instead
of by spoken words and communica-
tions, have been successfully exchanged
through the water between vessels
from three to four miles apart, with the
prospect that the working limit may be
increased with Improvement in the ap-
paratus.
CRABS, which are supposed to shed
their shells every year, do not often
shed them after they have attained their
full size, and the creatures become vic
tins to barnacles and all sorts of marine
growths that fasten themselves upon
the she'll A remarkable example of
this may he seen in the British museum,
where has been placed an old crab of
the edible species, with some half
dozen oysters of large size fixed to its
back, which load, ever increasing, the
old crab was doomed to carry to the
end of it's days. Another curious speci-
men preserved is that of hairy crab,
which, though not larger itself than a
walnut, is saddled with a sponge as
large as mans fist.